A beautiful mind & a beautiful heart

“What is work without innovation?” John Forbes Nash Jr. or rather the actor playing Nash in the 2001 film “A Beautiful Mind” says these words that illuminate the life of one of the most remarkable minds of the last century.

In one of the scenes from the film, the character says: “Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart.” There cannot be better words to describe what was a “beautiful mind” seeking a “beautiful heart.” John Forbes Nash Jr., 86, the Princeton University mathematician who won the Nobel for Economics and whose life inspired the film, and his wife Alicia, 82, died in a car crash last Saturday.

They were riding in a taxi. The driver lost control while trying to pass by another car and crashed the vehicle against a guard rail. It was a sad end for a beautiful couple. Widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, Nash was known for his work in game theory, and his personal struggle with paranoid schizophrenia.

Alicia Nash, an MIT physics major from an aristocratic Salvadoran family, has been credited with saving his life after schizophrenia derailed his career in the 1960s, letting him into her home and looking after him even after they divorced in 1963. As the couple's biographer, Sylvia Nasar, wrote in the 1998 book "A Beautiful Mind," "It was Nash's genius ... to choose a woman who would prove so essential to his survival."

Nash called the film an "artistic" interpretation based on his life of how mental illness could evolve – one that did not "describe accurately" the nature of his delusions or treatment. Unlike Crowe's character, who comes to rely on medication for treatment, Nash said in a 1994 interview it had been decades since he had taken medication.

He spoke of mental illness as often having “an unfavorable course with history in the sense that people never really recovered to what you can call mentally well. They become what are called consumers of mental health organisations. They are always taking some sort of a pill.” News of the couple's deaths drew tributes from academia and Hollywood.

"We are stunned and saddened by news of the untimely passing of John Nash and his wife and great champion, Alicia. Both of them were very special members of the Princeton University community," Princeton University President Christopher L Eisgruber said.

"RIP Brilliant #NobelPrize winning John Nash & and his remarkable wife Alicia. It was an honor telling part of their story #ABeautifulMind," director of the film Ron Howard tweeted. Crowe expressed condolences to the family on Twitter, calling the couple an "amazing partnership" with "beautiful minds" and "beautiful hearts."

John Nash, 86, the brilliant mathematician who won the Nobel in economics and whose life inspired a book and Oscar-winning flick ‘A Beautiful Mind,’ died in a car crash on Saturday night. Nash’s contribution helped `Game Theory’ gain popularity, leading to its widespread use by firms as mainstream corporate strategy. The couple is gone, leaving behind a luminous legacy that has stirred young minds. For them, it is essential to spell his theories.